Monday, March 21, 2005

The "Purity" Argument

Perry at SRB Marketing considers a frequently-discussed issue within sustainability circles: that of "purity." In other words, how well do words and phrases (such as "organic" or "socially-responsible investing") convey a pure sense of these ideas rather than a watered-down version that could apply to many products and companies? I agree completely with Perry that we need much more open dialogue on these issues... At the same time, the more extreme steps of litigation and "scathing, unilateral publications" (i.e., Paul Hawken's critique of SRI) have really gotten those conversations going...